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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Given the car's iconic classic/futuristic status, it's no surprise that the DeLorean DMC-12 is a popular car for DIY electric car conversions. That an honest-to-goodness official DeLorean EV is coming from Humble, Texas' reborn DeLorean Motor Company itself, though? That we did not see coming. It makes sense, though. If you're gonna build a time machine electric car, why not do it with some style?

Announced Friday night at the DMC Texas Open House, DMC said it plans to work with electric car startup Epic EV to get an all-electric DMC-12 into production by 2013. Epic is the company started by Aptera co-founder Chris Anthony that is working on the Torq and Amp vehicles (and some rather clever videos). Early reports say the Electric DeLorean will have a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour and offer 260 horsepower for something like $90,000-100,000. The gullwing doors should remain, but we're not sure where the motor will go (the original DeLorean used a rear-mounted engine), let alone the battery pack. This isn't the first time a DeLorean with an alternative powertrain has been talked about. Before his death in 2005, John DeLorean hinted that a hydraulic hybrid drivetrain might find a home in a relaunched DMC-12. That never happened, of course.

Specific technical details on the upcoming DeLorean Electric are sparse, but we're pretty sure it will be able to recharge its 1.21 gigawatt-hour battery instantly when connected to the right power source. You know, until the inevitable Mr. Fusion model gets the green light.

Get out your lightning rods and Sony Walkmans, this is going to be fun to watch.

From: http://socialhype.com/
Remember when joining the Mile High Club simply meant doing the deed in an airplane bathroom? Yeah, well that’s so 1997. Today the bar has been raised. Now, if you want to join the Mile High Club, you have to get it on while jumping out of a plane at 13,000 feet.

Who do we have to thank for this escalation in sexual adventurism? Skydiving instructor and pornographic actor Alex Torres, a.k.a. “Voodoo”.

You see, apparently Mr. Torres doesn’t make enough money to make ends meet in the porn biz, so on weekends he moonlights as a skydiving instructor. One day, he had a brilliant idea: why not make a video of people having sex while free-falling at 120 MPH?

Of course, Torres would star in the video, and he got the skydiving company’s secretary—a woman named Hope Howell—to join him in the act. They filmed the event, put the video up on the internet and, it seemed, viral video history would soon be made.

The authorities, however, were not too happy with the stunt. Turns out, it’s illegal to do anything on a plane that might reasonably distract the pilot. And since Torres and Howell started knocking boots before they jumped out of the plane, they may be in some serious hot water. As a result of these impending legal issue, Mr. Torres had to take the video down.

We know the iPhone 4S is a killer still camera—perhaps its greatest selling point—but how about video? Do the new guts and 1080p bump make a big difference? Yes. A giant yes. See just how amazing for yourself.
This perfectly-synced test, which used a special bit of rigging to align both the 4S and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II to capture the exact same scene, says way more than any Apple marketing verbiage can. With the 5D's settings matched as closely as possible to the 4S, the two—at least on Vimeo—look nearly indistinguishable. Yes, if you look closely, the 5D wins. It's got greater detail, depth of field, doesn't suffer from the iPhone's jarring rolling shutter problems, and of course has a giant panoply of manual settings any phone lacks. But the point remains: Apple's created a handset camera that can shoot pro-grade (albeit limited) video. And for a small, small fraction of the price. [Robino Films via PetaPixel, Thanks Matt!]

Update: For the doubters, more proof that the 4S is capable of shooting some incredible video. This time, from professional film editor Benjamin Dowie.

Listen to it here

A British band and a group of scientists have made the most relaxing tune in the history of man, an Mp3 of which is at the bottom of this article.

Sound therapists and Manchester band Marconi Union compiled the song. Scientists played it to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay.

Weightless works by using specific rhythms, tones, frequencies and intervals to relax the listener. A continuous rhythm of 60 BPM causes the brainwaves and heart rate to synchronise with the rhythm: a process known as ‘entrainment’. Low underlying bass tones relax the listener and a low whooshing sound with a trance-like quality takes the listener into an even deeper state of calm.

Dr David Lewis, one of the UK’s leading stress specialists said: “‘Weightless’ induced the greatest relaxation – higher than any of the other music tested. Brain imaging studies have shown that music works at a very deep level within the brain, stimulating not only those regions responsible for processing sound but also ones associated with emotions."

The study - commissioned by bubble bath and shower gel firm Radox Spa - found the song was even more relaxing than a massage, walk or cup of tea. So relaxing is the tune, apparently, that people are being Rex advised against listening to it while driving.

Apple’s iPhone 4 has been dominating Flickr for a while now. Indeed, this signifies that the device is used by millions to take photographs with. So, in light of this, we’ve made a list of the top 10 best iPhone photography apps.

PhotoForge is a photographer’s dream application. It allows users to enhance their images via powerful tools. Additionally, PhotoForge lets users manipulate images, retouching them, effects, and color correction, a painter’s tool and much more. If you’re looking to create original artwork, or just editing photos on your iPhone, then you can’t beat PhotoForge’s quality. Its key features include:

This photography application for the iPhone gives vintage black & white package that gives users the opportunity to have ultimate control over the intensity within images. Some of its notable features include:

Intuitive wooden interface

Direct preview of your changes

Two sliders allowing you to set the intensity of dark and light tones separately

Not in the mood to edit photos in a serious manner; rather, looking for an app which does the exact opposite? Comic Touch allows users to, for example, add balloons to give your photos a bit of creativity. Other features include:

Add captions to describe the scene or give the photo a title

Use the PhotoBooth-style warping effects to add some fun

Turn people into caricatures of themselves or give them bizarre expressions

When it comes to Adobe, ultimately the company delivers quality. On the PC, they give users quality image editing and photography programs in the form of Adobe Photoshop and they’ve managed to create a polished port onto the iPhone. Some of its notable features are:

The original 100 year old Shackleton expedition whisky and the recreation (Photos: Whyte & Mackay Distillery)

A little ice in your whisky may open up the flavor and enhance the drinking experience, but having 100 years of ice on top of your whisky can mean “a gift from Heaven for whisky lovers.” At least that’s what Richard Paterson, Master Distiller and Blender at Whyte & Mackay, called it when a long lost case of rare whisky was uncovered in the Antarctic in 2009. Two years later, he’s painstakingly recreated that whisky so the rest of us can enjoy a glass.

Failed Expedition, Abandoned Whisky

Members of the failed Shackleton Antarctic expedition

In 1907, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set off for an Antarctic expedition to the South Pole. To fortify the men of the “Nimrod” during the long, cold journey, Shackleton ordered 25 cases of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt whisky with commemorative labels marking the whisky as specially selected for the “Endurance expedition.” (Shackleton had intended to rename the “Nimrod” as the “Endurance,” but never did.)

In 1909, three wooden crates containing the rare whisky were abandoned to an Antarctic winter after a failed attempt to reach the South Pole. Buried deep beneath the ice for over 100 years, a team from the New Zealand Antarctic Trust was able to recover a single crate.

Thawing 100 Years of Deep Freeze

After a flight to the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand for careful thawing and stabilization, the crate is slowly defrosted from -20 C to 0 C over a two week period. 10 bottles survived, still wrapped in their protective paper and straw, with the precious liquid inside perfectly intact.

Ten bottles survive

Three of those bottles are flown, on a private jet, to Scotland where it is delivered to the Whyte & Mackay distilleries, the owners of the Mackinlay brand, where it undergoes extensive scientific analysis so Paterson and his team can attempt to recreate it. They find the whisky’s strength at 47.3% alc/vol, that it contained peat from the Orkney Islands, and that it had been aged in American white oak sherry casks. (Look for a documentary on the entire recreation to air on the National Geographic Channel at the end of this year.)

Painstaking Recreation

Richard Paterson and one of the original bottles

Since average whisky lovers would be unable to get their hands on one the rarest bottles in history, Paterson took on the challenge of recreating the 100 year old Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt. “It was a real privilege getting to handle, nose, and taste such a rare and beautiful bottle of whisky,” he said.

Paterson spent weeks of blending and marrying malts from the Glen Mhor and Dalmore distilleries with others from Speyside and beyond, varying in age from eight to 30 years, to get it just right. The result is recreation that is a perfect duplicate of Shackleton’s original. They’ve even reproduced the original bottle and packaging to complete the experience. And drinking this whisky is definitely an experience. As you can imagine, being in a bottle for 100 years creates a light, mellow whisky that’s a joy to sip.

And you can experience it, if you get your hands on one of the 50,000 bottles that are in the limited run. Expect to pay about $160 per bottle for the privilege, with 5% of the proceeds going to the expedition’s Heritage Trust. To learn more, head over to EnduringSpirit.com

In case you haven't heard, Apple's new iPhone 4S was released today. The phone is powered by Apple's new dual-core A5 chip, which Apple claims can deliver up to two times more power and seven times faster graphics performance than the iPhone 4.

We'll have a full review of the phone up shortly, but first we wanted to put the 4S through a series of benchmark tests to see how it stacks up against the competition. Take a look at the charts below, which illustrate how the iPhone 4S compares to previous generations of the iPhone, as well as some head-to-head Web performance benchmarks, against current PCMag Editors' Choice smartphones on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon.

In short, these benchmarks tell us that the iPhone 4S is the fastest iPhone so far, and the fastest smartphone in general for Web browsing.

Looking at the system performance benchmarks, the iPhone 4 tops out at just over half the performance level of the new 4S. GeekBench, an overall system performance benchmark, shows the iPhone 4 running iOS 5 scoring 383, as compared to 617 on the 4S. GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt High, a graphics benchmark, shows an even greater difference, with the iPhone 4S besting the iPhone 4 by more than 500 percent.

While the iPhone 3GS shows a higher number for graphics performance than the iPhone 4, that's because the screen resolution on the 3GS is significantly lower than the screen resolution on the iPhone 4. Taking that into account, graphics performance on the iPhone 4 is still twice as fast as the 3GS, though both are easily eclipsed by the 4S.

The 4S wins out on Web performance as well, but there's something interesting happening here if you look closely. An iPhone 3GS running iOS 5 scored significantly better on the Web benchmarks than an iPhone 4 running iOS 4. Even though the iPhone 4 is the more powerful of the two devices, this difference shows us that iOS 5 delivers a significant boost to Javascript performance. So if you're using an iPhone 4 or an iPhone 3GS, make sure to update your device to iOS 5.

Honeycomb-based tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, for instance, score Web performance benchmarks very much similar to the iPhone 4S. And hardware-wise, the Galaxy Tab is using a processor similar to the Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T. This shows us that Honeycomb is better-optimized for Web performance than Gingerbread, the latest version of Android available for smartphones.

All of this is likely to change next week, when Google unveils "Ice Cream Sandwich", the latest version of Android for smartphones and tablets. This update will likely include the Web performance improvements in Honeycomb and bring them to smartphones, which will result in better scores.

But whether or not that happens remains to be seen, and Ice Cream Sandwich will likely not be available as an update for most Android phones for a while. So for now, if you're looking for the best iPhone, or the fastest Web browsing experience on a smartphone, the iPhone 4S is the phone to get.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the iPhone 4S and the slideshow below.

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Ian M. Sherwin Giclée

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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings.His work is amazing.